


Afraid

by wherenearheisenberg



Series: Not-So-Humble Beginnings [1]
Category: The Social Network (2010)
Genre: Depositions, F/M, Flashbacks, Love Triangles, always a girl!Mark, girl!Mark
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-20
Updated: 2013-10-20
Packaged: 2017-12-29 23:22:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,293
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1011293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wherenearheisenberg/pseuds/wherenearheisenberg
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>At some point Wardo thought that at that moment somebody already took his place in Mark's life, if he even got a proper one.</p><p>And that's what fuelled his anger even more. Because he doesn't have the right to be angry at all, save for the business part.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Afraid

**Author's Note:**

> Okay I'm gonna start writing drabbles for The Social Network, mainly girl!Mark/Eduardo and a little bit of love triangles in between.
> 
> This is basically the scene in the taxicab right after Mark, Wardo, and Christy's first meeting with Sean. Where Mark thinks Wardo wants to end the party at eleven.

“He owned Mark after that dinner.” Eduardo said, addressing the lawyers but looking straight into Mark's eyes.

 

* * *

 

To say she was blown away was a total understatement.

 

Up until Wardo drowned down the remaining contents of his glass and got up from his chair did Mark realize the impact of Sean's parting words, “Drop the 'the'. Just Facebook.”

 

She thinks he's awesome, but Wardo doesn't want to hear the end of it. He doesn't, but Mark's gaze at Sean's retreating figure - kissing waitresses along the way – is enough to infuriate his already annoyed self.

 

And it wasn't until Christy tugged at her arm and stood herself did Mark also realize that it was time to go home.

 

Mark got up as Christy went over to Eduardo and held his hand. Together they walked out of the resautrant, but not before Wardo glanced back at Mark and beckoned her to catch up. Mark stared as the scene unfolded and wondered what caused a knot to twist in her stomach.

 

She shrugs it off, deciding to think more of Sean and his prospects for Thefaceb- Facebook, she reminds herself.

 

The three walked down the steps of the restaurant to get a cab back to Harvard. Wardo shamelessly sounded his intensifying wariness in Sean Parker's intentions. He was trying to reason out with Mark . The ironic thing was, Mark wasn't even talking. She was silent, like the way she was when trying to study new codes, or when she contemplates on how to hack a new system with a firewall not common to her.

 

She thought it would be best to keep quiet, but it only made Wardo more irritated. He can't believe she's seriously considering Sean. At all.

 

When they got into the cab and settled inside, Wardo felt the weight of Christy's head on his shoulder and they fell into an awkward silence. This ended quickly as Mark noticed Wardo looking at her while she looks out the window, prompting her to look back at him.

 

Instantly, Wardo saw it in her gaze. The city lights illuminated her eyes and it clearly showed that she was still pondered over Sean's words. He groaned softly and looked away, careful not to wake Christy. But before he knew it, words were slipping from his mouth. “That's gotta be some kind of land speed for talking.”

 

Christy's eyes fluttered open at the sound of Wardo's words and slowly sat up straight, head still on her boyfriend's shoulders. Had they've been still at the restaurant, she might've chastised him for talking like that to Sean.

 

“You want to end the party at eleven,” Mark said.

 

Wardo looked back at her. “I'm trying to pay for the party,” he said in as-a-mater-of-fact.

 

It's true. He was financing Thefacebook ever since it was put up. But he didn't care. He wanted to prove his business expertise and Mark was not exactly being a good business partner at the moment. She refused to listen. The moment she set her heart -or her brain- in something, nothing could stop her from pursuing it.

 

Unless it's denied by the command prompt.

 

“There won't be a party unless it's cool,” Mark said surely, but she still wanted Wardo's opinion. “What'd you think?”

 

“Sure, let's drop the 'the'.” Wardo said in reluctant resignation, still trying disuade Mark into following any of that crook's suggestions. He already sounded defeated. It wasn't his last attempt, but he knew a couple more arguments with Mark would not help him. It would only show how he sucked at trying to sway her to any of his opinions.

 

Sometimes he tries not to commend her for that.

 

“I meant catching the marlin instead of the 14 trout. Doesn't that sound good?”

 

Mark's always the ambitious one. Wardo was the simply contented one. Dustin once told him that Mark would be the famous grandmother living in the city and attending events in her honor while Wardo will be the grandfather who'll live in a modest country house with his wife and live the most peaceful life a rich man could possibly achieve.

 

He has ambitions, too. But he was so exposed to it that the line between ambition and meeting them faded into dust and scattered on either of its both sides.

 

Wardo scoffed and swung his head lamely towards Mark. Just so she knows how tired he was. “If you're a trout.”

 

Christy was just listening to them bicker the whole time. She sits straighter now. She lifts her head to see Mark and Wardo resolving into an uncomfortable silence, both looking over their respective sides of the window.

 

They're so different yet without even trying, their connection resounds around the places they go. It's so thick in the air and even if she was in the middle of them the whole day, it was as if they were not meant to be physically apart.

 

How long 'til Wardo and I have that kind of relationship, she asks herself. She thought if she acted sooner, it could happen.

 

A part of her doubted it.

 

Her face falls into a deep frown at the realization. She looks at Wardo and grabs his hand, and he turns to look at her. He smiles tiredly, but he glances quickly at Mark and his smile disappears. Christy caught it, though, the wistful look in his eyes that he quickly shrugs off as he looks back at her.

 

Christy smiles weakly at him and rubs his arm, thinking to herself that he's only in need of a good rest. She turnes her head forward, looking straight ahead and trying to think nothing about her previous thoughts.

 

* * *

 

They dropped off Christy first. She's in Quincy. Mark remembers how Quincy had no online facebook.

 

No wonder she didn't see Christy's picture in Facemash.

 

Mark stayed at the bottom of the stairs, turning away when Christy gives Wardo a lingering kiss on the lips. She didn't want to intrude over their lovey dovey-ness, much less see it. But it hadn't been longer than she expected it to be because a moment later Wardo was tapping her shoulder and looking at her expectantly.

 

He smiled at her a little bit more tighter than usual.

 

They were quielty walking to Kirkland when Wardo spoke, “You hair looks nice.”

 

She looks at him and suddenly touches her hair- oh right, Chris plaited the side of her hair that morning before they went to the meeting. She forgot it was there the whole time. “Thanks,” she said. Wardo was never short of compliments, given how a gentleman he was. She never got used to it though, she's always caught off-guard and she finds herself contemplating how he could say it so casually.

 

It was like a prayer, and she had this thought that if it really was a prayer, it would be the kind of prayer that people would remember in their hearts and hold dear as they utter it.

 

When they reached Kirkland, Mark heard Wardo say his goodbyes as she enters the code to the door. She looked back, and he was still there.

 

“Bye,” was all she had managed to say, before pushing herself inside the building. Wardo walked towards his own dorm at the sound of the door clicking. His expression turned sullen as he kicked the grass on the ground. Cursing it as though it had caused his misery.

 

They never got their real thoughts about each other straight.

 

* * *

 

At some point Wardo thought that at that moment somebody already took his place in Mark's life, if he even got a proper one.

  
  
And that's what fuelled his anger even more. Because he doesn't have the right to be angry at all, save for the business part.

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this while listening to The Neighbourhood's song entitled Afraid, hence the title. 
> 
> I think the idea for this drabble was conceived while I was watching The Social Network for the millionth time. I suppose familiarity is what drives people in life.


End file.
